Diagnosis and Intervention for Disorders of Written Language

Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies for Disorders of Written Language
Margaret J. Kay, Ed.D.

This article is another summary of written disorders and interventions to support students.  A couple of interesting facts are that dysgraphia causes losses of up to 30 million dollars a year to the U.S. economy  in lost output (how did they calculate that?)  Also that writing is the last and most complex skill to develop, and therefore is most susceptible to being compromised some way or another.  The term "developmental output failures" is one that I have heard of in the learning disabilities field.  "Output failure" is certainly a problem that I have seen frequently in my practice.

The author goes on to look at various types of dysgraphia:  dyslexic dysgraphia, which is related to specific learning disabilities; dysgraphia due to motor clumsiness; and dysgraphia due to a defect in the understanding of space.  She discusses the assessment and diagnosis of students with writing disorders.

One of the things I found interesting was the discussion about teaching philosophies and dysgraphia.  The author mentions trends in literacy education such as allotting less time to practising writing, and abandoning the formal teaching of mechanics and handwriting, as possible causes of dysgraphia.  At the same time, she mentions research that supports an approach of teaching writing through real-life projects requiring the writing process.  This article really makes it clear that an accurate assessment of exactly why a students is struggling, is essential before planning remedial or bypass (compensatory) actions.

There is no date on this article, but I guess that it is fairly old as there is no mention of compensatory strategies from more advanced computer software or from iPads.

As I was reading this, I was thinking about how we are certainly not teaching the mechanics of writing to the extent that it was done in our parents' generation...and as a result, many in our generation are not as good at handwriting, spelling and grammar as previous generations.  But the question is...does it matter?